first Nigerian Prime Minister. Nigeria join the UN as the 99th member.
Commonwealth membership is also attained.
1963 October l. Nigeria becomes a Republic. Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe becomes the first
President.
1966 January 14-15. First military coup. Balewa and other prominent leaders are
killed. Major-General Aguiyi-Ironsi becomes Head of State on January.
1966 July 29. Second military coup. Ironsi is killed. Lt. Col. Yakubu Gowon becomes
Head of State. Many Easterners in the North are massacred. Exodus begins to
the Eastern Region.
1967 May 27 Gowon creates 12 states from the four regions.
1967 May 30 Ojukwu, military governor of the Eastern Region, declares the Eastern
Region to be the Independent Republic of Biafra.
1967 July 6. Civil War begins.
1970 January 15. Biafra surrenders and rejoins Nigeria. 1.5 million live lost, mainly
to starvation.
1970 December 31 Public Education Edict 1970, published in East Central State of Nigeria, calling for the take over of schools. This was made retroactive to 26 May
1970. The take over, management and ownership of all primary and secondary
schools.
1972 April 2. Nigeria changes from ‘left-hand-drive’ to ‘right-hand-drive.’
The National Stadium is opened.
1973 January l. Money changes from the Pound to the Naira.
1973 May 22. National Youth Service Corps is introduced.
1975 July 29. Third military Coup. Bloodless coup. Brig. Murtala Muhammed
replaces Gowon. Obasanjo becomes Chief of Staff.
1975 October. A Commission set up to draft a new Constitition and to return Nigeria to
civil rule.
1976 February 3. Seven states are created, thus there is a total of 19. Announcement
is made that Abuja is proposed as the new Federal Capital.
1976 February 13. Fourth military coup, led by Col. Dimka. Murtala Muhammed is
killed. Lt. General Olusegun Obasanjo becomes Head of State on the following
day.
1976 Universal Primary Education, and Operation Feed the Nation are launched.
1977. January 15 to February 12. The Festival of Arts and Culture (FESTAC) is held in
Lagos and Kaduna.
.
1978 September 12. Ban on political parties is lifted. The 12 year old state of
emergency is lifted.
1979. Elections are held for federal representatives and senators.
1979 August 11. Presidential elections. Shehu Shagari wins. He will be the first civil
ruler since 1966.
1979 October 1. Shehu Shagari becomes President. The end of military rule and the
beginning of the Second Republic.
1980 May. Religious violence in Zaria. Much property is destroyed.
1980 December 18-20 Riots in Kano. The Maitatsine sect, 4,177 are killed.
1982 September 29 – October 3. Disturbances in Kaduna, Kaduna State. 53 killed
and many churches are burned.
1982 October 29-30. Further trouble in Maiduguri, Borno State, Maitatsine sects.
118 die.
1983 August. Shehu Shagari re-elected President for second four year term.
1983 December 31, New Year’s Eve. Fifth Military Coup, Major-General Muhammad Buhari becomes Head of State. Babangida and Abacha are among the coup plotters.
1984 February 27 – March 5. Disturbance in Yola, Gongola State. Maitatsine sect,
568 die.
1985 April 26-28 Riot in Gombe, Bauchi State. Maitatsine sect. 105 die.
1985 August 27. 6th Military Coup, Chief of Army Staff, Major General
Ibrahim B.Babangida becomes Military President.
1986 7th Coup, Coup attempt by General Mamman Vatsa fails. Coup plotters are
executed in March.
1986 March, Palm Sunday. Christians and Muslims clash during processions in
Ilorin, Kwara State.
1986 May. At the University of Ibadan, Muslims burn the figure of the Risen Christ at
the Catholic Chapel of the Resurrection.
1986 October 16. Wole Soyinka is awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, the first
African writer so honored.
1987 March 5th and following days. In Kafanchan, Kaduna State, Christians and
Muslims clash at the College of Education. 100 Churches and Mosques burned.
1987 March. Katsina, Funtua, Zaria, Gussau and Kaduna (Kaduna State). A wave of
religious riots, many churches are burned and property destroyed, and many
lives are lost.
1987 June. An Advisory Council on Religious Affairs is established, as a forum for
improving Christian-Muslim relations.
1987 September. A Transition to civil rule begins, under Babangida, as local elections
are scheduled. Originally intended for 1990, then put off to 1992, and then 1993.
Two more states (Katsina and Akwa-Ibom) are created, thus 21 total.
1987 December 12. Local elections are held, but many are declared invalid.
1988. March 26. New local elections are held.
1989 The ban on political parties is lifted. Thirteen parties register, but are rejected.
So two are created by the government for the elections scheduled for December
8, 1990.
1989 February 6-11, 2nd Art Fair
1990 April 22. Coup Attempt by Major Gideon Orkah. 42 coup plotters will be
executed on July 27.
1990 November. Rev. Reinhard Bonnke, German evangelist, speaks in Kaduna,
500,000 attend.
1991 April In Katsina, several lives are lost. Sh’ite sect in Katsina led by Malam
Yahaya Yakubu stirs up trouble.
At the end of April, in Tafawa Balewa (Bauchi State) over 200 lives are
lost, and property and 20 churches are destroyed.
1991 October 14- 15. In Kano, the attempt of the Izala sect to stop Rev. Bonnke
from preaching becomes violent Thousands of lives are lost and property destroyed.
1991 Number of States is increased to 30.
November 27-29. Census shows the population to be 88.6. million, less than
expected.
1991 December 12 President Babangida moves his Presidential office and residence to
Abuja, which now officially becomes the Capital of Nigeria.
1991 December, elections are held for governors and state legislatures.
1992 February 6th and then May 15-16 Zango Kataf, Zaria, Kaduna State
Communal clash becomes a religious clash, with lives and property destroyed.
1992 July 4. Elections for National Assembly are held.
August 7. Presidential primaries are held, but the government disallows the
results. New primaries in September are also disallowed.
1993 Funtua (Katsina State). Kalakato religious sect assaults a village head.
50 lives are lost and property destroyed.
1993 June 12 Election. Abiola would win over Tofa.
1993 June 23. President Babangida nullifies the elections of June 12.
1993 August 26. President Babangida, on the day before he had promised to hand over
to civilian rule, steps down and hand power over to the Interim National
Government of Chief Ernest Shonekan.
1993 November 17. Palace coup, 9th Coup for Nigeria, as Minister of Defence, Sani
Abacha becomes Head of State. He dissolves all parties and government
legislatures, all democratic institutions.
1994 May 21. A mob kills four men in Ogoniland. Eventually Ken Saro-Wiwa is
hanged for allegedly being behind this.
1994 June 12. M.K.O. Abiola declares himself President but he is arrested one week
later.
1994 June 27. The Constitutional Conference Committee begins its work. It submits
a report one year later.
1995 Alleged abortive coup attempt. Forty persons are convicted. Among them,
Obasanjo and Yar’adua are imprisoned. (10th Coup)
1995 November 10 Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight others are executed. He was a writer,
and leader of the Ogoni people.
1996 May 11. Nnamdi Azikwe dies, age 92. He was the first President of Nigeria.
1996 June 4. Kudirat Abiola, age 44, wife of Chief Abiola who is in prison, is
assassinated in Lagos.
1996 October 1 Six more States are created, so there are now 36.
1996 November 7. ADC plane crashes on way from Port Harcourt to Lagos, near
Lagos. 143 die, including Claude Ake.
1997. December 21. Alleged 11th attempted coup. Second in Command, Chief of Staff
Lt. General Oladipo Diya is arrested.
1998 June Sani Abacha dies of a heart attack. General Abdusalami Abubakar
becomes Head of State. He frees Obasanjo from prison, and promises
democracy by May 29, 1999.
1998. July 7. Abiola dies in prison, while being visited by a delegation from the
U.S.A. government.
1999 February 27. Presidential Elections are held, and Obasanjo is the winner.
1999. May 20. Muslim-Christian riots in Kaduna, for three days, several hundred
are feared dead.
1999. May 29. Obasanjo becomes President.
Ijaw and Itsekiri fight in Delta Region, over 200 are killed
1999. July 18 Hausa and Yoruba riot in Shagamu, over 60 are killed. This leads to
trouble in Kano where over 70 are killed.
August 11. About 200 are killed as the army intervenes in Taraba State
October. Sharia Law in is introduced in Zamfara State.
November 25. Yoruba and Hausa clash in Lagos, about 100 are killed.
2000 February. Riots in Kaduna over the introduction of Sharia. Over 400
are killed.
2001 September 7. Christian-Muslim conflicts in Jos. Over 500 are killed.
2001 October 12-14 In Kano, there are anti-American riots, because of USA
intervention in Afghanistan. At least 350 are killed.
October 12. 19 soldiers are killed after feuds near Benue and Taraba States.
October 21-22 The massacre of 200 civilians in Benue State by soldiers, in
retaliation for 19 soldiers who were killed. No one is held accountable for the
massacre. President Obasanjo defends it.
2001 December 23. Attorney General of Nigeria, Bola Ige is assassinated.
2002 January 27. Army Munitions depot in Lagos explodes, over 1000 die in panic.
2002 May 28. The findings of the Human Rights Violation Investigation Commission
(Oputa Panel) are released.
2002 June 23 Three new political parties are approved by INEC.
